


Tradition

by Fyre



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-13
Updated: 2013-03-13
Packaged: 2017-12-05 05:07:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,320
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/719209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fyre/pseuds/Fyre
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Some Princesses get Fairy Godmothers. Others get Rumpelstiltskin.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tradition

The fireworks were still colouring the sky, celebrating the arrival and presentation of the new Princess.

Cora stood on the balcony with Henry, her Princely husband, as long as was necessary for all the people to see them. He was handsome, it was true, but handsome did not mean interesting. He was useful, of course, as attested to by the glittering crown on her brow and the would-be Queen who now slept in her nursery. 

The music continued far below them, back in a world where she had once belonged, and she smiled and waved. She had barely turned to walk back into the palace when she became aware that something, something was not right. 

It wasn't a physical sensation, not something tangible, but the ripple down her spine, almost like a breath of icy wind down her neck.

Her nails bit into her palms.

He was here.

Cora gathered up her skirts and rushed in the direction of the nursery. The idiot maid was backing out of the room, gibbering and hysterical. Cora stopped long enough to strike the foolish woman down. She would be executed with the dawn for daring to abandon the Princess in his company.

She settled her skirts and stalked into the nursery, unsurprised to see him standing over the cradle.

He was motionless, as rigid and hard as he had been the last time she had seen him, but Regina rested in his arms, fast asleep. His eyes were fixed on her child, her future, and she felt the power in her rise. She could have struck him down where he stood for daring to approach, daring to touch.

"Don't even think about it, dearie," Rumpelstiltskin breathed, poison in every word. 

"Put my child down," she said, moving closer. 

He raised his eyes to her, his expression terrible. "Why? Do care what happens to her?" He bared his teeth. "Do you love her, dearie? Because that would be most impressive."

"Of course I love her," Cora retorted, bristling. "She's my daughter."

His lips curled in a sneer, and he drew a claw down Regina's soft, pink cheek. "Does the child know what manner of heartless beast her mother is, I wonder? Will she see you for what you are?"

"You told me not to stop," Cora breathed. "You told me not to and I don't intend to, Rumpel. Just because you don't have the stomach to grasp true power, that's the reason you'll never be able complete that curse."

He looked up at her, upper lip twitching back from his teeth, then curved a hand around Regina's sleeping face. "The curse will come to pass, dearie," he whispered, his pupils wide and black. "Thanks to you and your... great sacrifice." His smile was the cruellest she had ever seen it. "Matters have become much clearer."

She was not afraid. She would not allow herself to be afraid, not of him, not ever. 

She strode forward, snatching her child from his arms. "You have no place here," she snarled, her face so close to his she could feel his breath on her skin. "You were not invited, nor are you wanted." She held Regina closer. "My child is of no concern to you."

He held up his forefingers. "And that," he said with dark glee, "is where you're wrong, dearie. I'm very concerned with her." He leaned closer, his skin glittering eerily in the candlelight. "If you truly loved her, you would dash her to the floor now to save her from the future I have seen."

"You'll never get near her," Cora whispered. "I'll be sure of that." She looked down at her daughter. "She'll be a Queen one day."

He laughed shrilly. "You're not wrong," he crooned, reaching out to stroke the baby's face.

Cora snatched his wrist, holding it away from Regina's face. "She will be a Queen?"

He met her eyes. "As will you, dearie," he said with a grin. He looked down at the child. 

Cora drew back from him. "Without you," she said, her voice hard. "She won't have to make the deals I had to, to get here."

Rumpelstiltskin spun away from her. "The deals?" he chortled. "If that's what you thought we were, you removed more than just your heart." He looked over his shoulder at her and had she cared, she knew the hatred in his eyes would have hurt more than a blade. "You can try and close her away, dearie, but she will call on me."

"She won't," Cora said, shaking her head. If he intervened in her daughter's life, there was no telling how much he could ruin her plans, out of spite and vengeance. "She won't even know your name, I promise you that."

Rumpelstiltskin tapped his fingertips on his lips, his eyes glittering dangerously. "Oh, what's in a name?" He spun around to face her again, approaching with delicate, mincing steps. "I bring a blessing for her, your little Queen."

Cora shielded Regina's head with her hand. "What kind of blessing?" she asked guardedly.

"Oh, it won't hurt the little Princess," he gasped, feigning horror at such a thing. "No, no, no." His smile returned, sharp as a blade and dark as night. "I need her alive and intact."

Cora narrowed her eyes. "Then what is this blessing?"

He tilted his head, reptile-like. "Can't tell you, dearie," he said. "It's a gift for her." His teeth glittered gold by the candlelight. "It's traditional." He leaned over the child, until his nose almost brushed against Cora's. "It'll make her happy." He wrinkled his nose. "For old time's sake."

Cora searched his face.

For all that he was a trickster and an imp, and for all that he twisted the truth, he wasn't inclined to lie.

"Very well," she said, uncovering Regina's head.

Rumpelstiltskin lowered his eyes to the child.

Once, this might have been their child, in another time, another place. 

But now, she was a Princess and her daughter would be a Queen, and he was alone in the dark once more. Darkness and isolation were what he had promised her once. Those were the very things he now basked in.

Rumpelstiltskin curved his hand over the child's downy head. "My blessing to you, Regina," he whispered, "is that you will find love, the truest of love, and it will bring you joy beyond measure." He bowed his head and touched his lips to her brow, barely a brush of contact, barely a flicker of magic. "This is my gift to you."

When he drew back, Cora looked at him in surprise. "Thank you, Rumpel," she said. "A generous gift."

His smile curled his mouth up, though his eyes remained on Regina. "You have no idea," he said. He swept into a ridiculous bow. "My Lady." He raised his eyes enough to meet hers, and the emotion there was unreadable. "Former, of course."

"Of course." She raised her chin. "And now, you will leave her be?"

Rumpelstiltskin laughed a little too brightly. "Unless she calls upon me," he said. "Until then, I leave her in your care."

"She won't call on you if she doesn't know of you," she murmured, looking down at her daughter.

"Technicalities," he said with a dismissive wave. "If she calls on me, I will come. If she does not..." He shrugged elegantly. "Hide my name if you must, but if she finds it, and if she calls..."

"She won't," she said again. 

"No, of course," he agreed with a wicked little chuckle, but there was something dark and knowing about his smile. He swept into a bow and vanished in a cloud of smoke. 

Cora stroked her daughter's hair, wondering at his intentions. "Mother's here, darling," she murmured. "Mother will take care of you as long as you need her." She lowered her head to kiss Regina's brow. "And the world will be at your feet."


End file.
